Linux Adopts a Conflict Resolution Code

by Ben Pearson

March 13th, 2015

The Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) has had a number of controversies during heated debates over the development of the Kernel. Most recently, Lennart Poettering, the creator of systemd, wrote an article where he accused Linus Torvalds of encouraging personal attacks on him. The resolution code was written by Greg Kroah-Hartman and was signed off by 60 Kernel developers. Linus added it to the Kernel as the following code patch.

The Linux kernel development effort is a very personal process compared
to “traditional” ways of developing software. Your code and ideas
behind it will be carefully reviewed, often resulting in critique and
criticism. The review will almost always require improvements to the
code before it can be included in the kernel. Know that this happens
because everyone involved wants to see the best possible solution for
the overall success of Linux. This development process has been proven
to create the most robust operating system kernel ever, and we do not
want to do anything to cause the quality of submission and eventual
result to ever decrease.

If however, anyone feels personally abused, threatened, or otherwise
uncomfortable due to this process, that is not acceptable. If so,
please contact the Linux Foundation’s Technical Advisory Board at
<tab@lists.linux-foundation.org>, or the individual members, and they
will work to resolve the issue to the best of their ability. For more
information on who is on the Technical Advisory Board and what their
role is, please see:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/programs/advisory-councils/tab

As a reviewer of code, please strive to keep things civil and focused on
the technical issues involved. We are all humans, and frustrations can
be high on both sides of the process. Try to keep in mind the immortal
words of Bill and Ted, “Be excellent to each other.”